


Everything’s Better With Vodka and Cogs

by ermengarde



Category: Bandom, Cobra Starship, My Chemical Romance
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Community: trope_bingo, M/M, Podfic Available
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-21
Updated: 2013-01-21
Packaged: 2017-11-26 09:20:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,272
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/649041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ermengarde/pseuds/ermengarde
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gabe doesn't get the Way brothers at <em>all</em>, nor why Gerard's suddenly on his radar, but he's going to figure it out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Everything’s Better With Vodka and Cogs

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [No_tags](http://no-tags.dreamwidth.org) 2013 for the prompt _Gabe/Gerard - steampunk_ and fulfills the "HS AU" square of my trope bingo card

Gabe doesn't get the Way brothers at _all_. No, strike that, Mikey's mostly afraid of his own shadow and hides with his big brother a lot, which _does_ make sense because Gerard’s a senior and that should be enough to stop anyone trying to beat Mikey up… except that Gerard is _also_ a tiny nerd and shouldn't realistically be able to provide any protection at all.

It's... it's fucking weird is what it is. And, okay, Gerard is theoretically all cool and shit - he wears the right band shirts (and they're not even fucking knock offs, they're, like, worn in and by the smell they're either originals that have never been washed or they're stolen from a homeless person. Not that Gabe goes around smelling Gerard Way, it... look, he just knows, okay?) and he's got all the right music taped from weird radio stations that no one else can find or on fucking _imported_ cassettes but... fuck, the dude never washes, and he plays fucking D and D, and Gabe has never seen him manage to have, like, a complete fucking conversation with anyone other than Mikey that didn't scream socially awkward.

Gabe knows how these things work, he knows for a fact that he's pretty high up the school’s social scale; he's not a jock, particularly, would rather punch himself in the face than join the football team and play all those ridiculous politics and he’s pretty sure he’d end up getting a lot of shit about his _life choices_ if he tried to go down that route - but he's tall and he's good looking and has always pulled people to him, made people love him, and he can't figure out why the Way brothers, who’re slightly lower than pond scum on any scale Gabe’s ever come across, are on his radar at all, but they are, and Gabe's always believed in following his gut, and right now his gut really wants to figure out what their fucking deal is.

Mikey's in his chemistry class - Mikey's quiet and hides in corners but it's hard to avoid noticing the guy who's set his desk on fire _twice_ \- and it takes no effort at all to get Mikey's lab partner to swap with him (the poor dude still doesn't have his eyebrows back, he's fucking delighted to get away from Mikey), and it only takes three weeks and wearing the same Misfits shirt _far_ too many times in the same calendar month for Mikey to start talking to him.

 

Mikey is actually kind of funny, he makes all these little asides that make Gabe snort with laughter, and when Gabe gets called out by Mr. Peterson for laughing too loudly and Mikey rolls his eyes and makes this _tiny_ eyebrow movement that suggests he thinks Mr. Peterson’s a humorless douche, Gabe knows he’s in.

~~

Gabe is basically kind of an asshole, and he’s more than happy to ignore anything that might be considered decent behavior by Miss Manners to get what he wants, and he’s _absolutely_ fine with ignoring any subtle hints that he’s not welcome somewhere, so as soon as Mikey gives him that miniscule in, Gabe inserts himself in Mikey’s social circle by joining him and Gerard at lunch.

Mikey just lifts his chin in a sharp little nod when Gabe sits down and continues his conversation with his brother. Gerard doesn’t appear to have noticed Gabe at all.

“So, like we’d be what? Cowboys or something?” Mikey sounds faintly disgusted. “Can’t we just roll up more Halflings and finish the Rivendeep campaign?”

Gerard’s eyes get very wide and he looks slightly like someone’s just slapped him. “ _Steam punk horror_ cowboys Mikes. They’re fucking cool.”

“I dunno. Sounds kinda lame, Gee. I mean, the _art_ ’s, you know, good or whatever, but all the cards and chips and shit sound really complicated and it’s _boring_ when we have to keep stopping to look up the rules. Brendon and Frank just get all distracted, then Ray gets really irritated, and then people stop paying attention and you get all...” Mikey frowns “...whatever, and...”

Gerard huffs out a sigh. “We need a new party. With people who can sit still.”

Gabe has literally no idea what they’re talking about, has not the first clue who Brendon or Frank or Ray are, but he’s not the kind of asshole who looks such an obvious gift horse in the mouth.

“I can be in your party.” Gabe shrugs. “I sit still like a pro, and I’m kinda down with the whole cowboy vibe.” Gabe is pretty sure that by cowboy Mikey meant an actual cattle herding dude on a horse, but this is Jersey so he figures there are unlikely to be real horses involved, and there’s the whole sitting still thing...so... meh. He used to watch all those western reruns on a Sunday morning when he was a kid, so he can wing whatever it is.

Gerard startles, and Gabe had thought that Gerard was just doing that senior thing where they pretend that you’re so far beneath them that they can’t see you, but, wow, it actually looks like Gerard _really_ hadn’t noticed Gabe was there, which Gabe finds kind of insulting – he’s over six feet tall after all, he takes up kinda a lot of space - but then Gerard smiles at him, beams across the table, showing off this mouthful of ridiculous tiny teeth and Gabe suddenly works out that he’s really not all that very insulted at all, and that he maybe has a tiny little idea about why he’s been so obsessed with the Way brothers.

Oh. Oh fuck.

Gabe’s pretty much okay with the issues that come up when you’re gay in high school; he’s totally comfortable with who is, coming out had been…pretty much an accident, he’d been in the car with his Papi and the conversation had turned to girls and then, when Gabe hadn’t mustered a lot of enthusiasm about it, to boys, and his family are all fine with it - they’re supportive, really - and he’s tall enough that even the seniors don’t really view him as a target for their shit... and, okay, he knows that a lot of that’s due to the fact that he’s not really been super interested in advancing his theoretical interest in boys to the practical experience level yet, so he’s not really on the radar for bullying or anything, but... Yeah.

He has a fucking enormous crush on Gerard Way, the nerdiest boy in school. And Gerard’s a _senior_ , so he’s _so_ far out of Gabe’s league that it’s almost hilarious (nerd or not, Gerard’s older and there’s a hierarchy to that).

“Ohh!” Gerard is still smiling and he sounds completely _delighted_.

Mikey rolls his eyes. “Gerard, Gabe, he’s in my chem. class. Gabe, Gerard, my brother, whose game you’ve just volunteered to be in.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, I’ve seen you like...” Gerard’s gesturing a _lot_. He’s got really nice hands. “Walking? Down the corridor? You’ve got a really great face.”

Mikey nods. “Gerard’s an artist, he notices faces.”

Gabe has even less clue what’s going on in the conversation now, but he’s pleased that Gerard has noticed him…or his face, anyway.

“So, yeah, if you’re up for a game I should probably take you through character gen, right?” Gerard makes this really _sexy_ little moue with his mouth. Gabe is utterly fucked.

“Umm.” Character gen sounds like something you’d probably do for Dungeons and Dragons, which Gabe’s really not down with, but then, time with Gerard sounds like something he could really, really enjoy, so... “Yeah?”

“Cool, so, the game’s Saturday, so....” Gerard taps his fingers on his mouth. “You should come home with us after school on Friday, and then you could stay? We’ll get you all rolled up and like, I can do you a character sketch?”

Mikey makes this sad little noise and his eyebrows draw together. “But you were gonna do me first.”

“You said you said you thought cowboys were lame.” Gerard sounds positively wounded.

“I said that the art would be cool.” Mikey’s shoulders slump.

Gerard reaches up and rubs Mikey’s back, and it’s like Gabe not even here anymore. The Way brothers are weirdly symbiotic and Gabe feels a spike of jealousy that he’s not a part of that. “You wanna be a Huckster, right? I can draw you tonight, it’ll be better, like, we’ll have something to show the guys, like concept drawings, it’s going to be fucking awesome Mikey, you’ll see.”

The end of lunch comes surprisingly quickly and Gabe’s barely eaten his food, discovered he has a hopeless crush on a huge nerd, been ignored for about eighty percent of the time, and apparently joined a role-playing campaign. But he is getting to spend a huge chunk of his weekend with Gerard Way, and he’s scarily happy about that.

~~

The Way’s house is _weird_. There are all these dolls everywhere, and just _stuff_ , but it’s also kind of cool and Mrs. Way orders them pizza and offers Gabe a beer, which is, yeah, Gabe kinda likes that.

They wait in the kitchen until the pizza’s delivered, and then Mikey snags a whole pie to himself and heads upstairs with just a nod to Gabe and Gerard.

“See if you can get that Pumpkins bootleg that we saw?” Gerard shouts after him and Mikey just wafts his hand behind him in response. Gerard shrugs and grabs the rest of the pizza and a bottle of coke from the ‘fridge and kicks open a door to what has to be the basement, he nods at the draining board, where what looks like all the dishes in the house are piled up to dry. “Can you grab a couple of glasses please?”

There is a _seriously_ funky smell that rises up to meet Gabe as he follows Gerard down the unfinished stairs into a dark, messy room that is easily six times the amount of space that Gabe has at home, but Gabe is basically following a really cute guy that he _really_ likes into his _bedroom_ so he breathes through his mouth until he gets used to the smell of unwashed clothes and mildew and ashtrays and oil paints. It’s not like Gabe’s room smells like roses or anything, so he shouldn’t really judge... Although Gabe does crack a window now and again and he’s not sure that this room _has_ any windows.

Gerard dumps the pizza on top of a pile of comics, other, empty, pizza boxes, and dirty socks that’s lying on a coffee table, and turns around to grab a bunch of crap off of the couch and throw it on the floor.

“Oh, hey, you’ve got a couch in your room.” Okay, so Gerard’s room kind of looks like a crack den, but _seriously_ , it’s like an apartment or something and it’s kind of awesome.

Gerard grins at him. “Yeah, mom used to get so pissed at me and Mikey having games upstairs, you know? We were too loud when she wanted to watch T.V. and me and Mikey like, like horror movies and shit, and she likes things where people have secret sisters and marry their long lost cousins who are also kings of Moravia in disguise, so, yeah, we’ve had this set up for while and then, you know, exams and studying and stuff? So I needed to be able to study in my room and Mikey can’t sleep with the light on, so I just moved. I mean, like, I’m sleeping on a futon and it’s not super comfortable, but...”

“...but you’ve got your own lair.” Gabe smiles at Gerard.

“Yeah! Like Batman. It’s so cool.” Gerard digs around in the couch cushions, pulls out a half full handle of vodka and waves it at Gabe. “You want? It’s crappy but the coke’s cold and it does the job?”

Gabe’s not had a lot of liquor (beer, sure, but liquor makes store clerks remember that he needs I.D.) but he’s staying over and Mrs. Way doesn’t seem like the kind of mom who’ll freak out and call his Papi if he gets drunk, so he nods and sets the glasses out on the clearest bit of the table.

Gerard pours seriously generous measures and it tastes _disgusting_ , but the pizza is good for taking the taste away, and Gabe finds he doesn’t mind the flavor so much by the time he gets to his second glass.

They sit in silence, drinking and eating, and it _should_ be really awkward, but Gabe’s starving and Gerard keeps flashing these bright smiles at him, like he’s truly delighted that Gabe’s here, sitting on his couch, so it’s actually kind of nice. Gabe’s stomach was kind of twisty-nervous, before, but the vodka is settling it right down.

Gerard finishes up his pizza and licks each of his fingers clean in turn. Gabe makes an embarrassing, _ridiculous_ whimpering noise and tries to cover it by coughing.

“You okay, man? You want some more coke.” Gerard looks concerned and he’s leaning into Gabe’s space and suddenly the twisting is back in his stomach.

“Uhh, no,” Gabe makes a little throat clearing noise. “No, thanks, I’m fine; I uhh just swallowed the wrong way?”

Gerard smiles again, and he seriously has the _best_ smile. “Vodka is not a viable alternative to oxygen.”

Gabe snorts. “No, no it isn’t.”

Gerard pulls a bright orange book, a legal pad and a pencil case from the table and pages through the book until he finds something. “Hey, so, you wanna do your character now? I kinda figured you for a mad scientist, cos you have chemistry with Mikey, and cos you kinda look like you might be good at selling snake oil and you can totally have this, like steam car, it’ll be _so cool_.” Gerard starts sketching shapes in the air with his hands and Gabe really doesn’t understand what he’s talking about, but he’s pretty sure he’ll agree to anything.

~~

Gerard keeps making Gabe read bits out of the book, and make decisions about what _skills_ he wants, and Gabe really can’t believe that he’s spending his Friday night in a smelly basement making up a role playing character, or that he’s having so much fucking _fun_ doing it. Gerard’s really excited about the whole idea and that’s kind of catching, and making up characters _is_ , actually, fucking _awesome_ and Gerard’s already drawn him the funkiest van on the planet; all cogs and wheels and a roaring fire at the back with a chimney, like a old steam train. Apparently its stats say that it’s pretty likely just to blow up, but it looks cool and Gabe names her Ripley because she’s kick ass.

Gerard also draws Gabe’s character, a mad scientist called Matt Dillon after the dude in _Gunsmoke_. Gabe kinda figured he’d be in a white coat, with glasses or something, but Gerard draws this utterly cool as ice dude in a black duster and hat, with Gabe’s face and these _boots_ with buckles and clockwork and... Honestly? Gabe still isn’t totally clear on what steam punk is, but it looks _cool as fuck_.

Gerard finishes crosshatching the shadows in Matt’s picture and looks up and yawns. “Mmh, uhh, sorry!” He rolls out his shoulders and puts the character sheet and drawings inside the source book. “It must be getting kinda late, huh? You tired?”

Gabe is, a little, but he doesn’t really want this to end quite yet. He’s feeling a little fuzzy from the vodka, loose and expansive, and Gerard’s close and yeah, it’s not bedtime yet. “Nah, I’m a night owl, it’s still early.”

“Awesome, wanna watch _Star Wars_?”

 

“Yeah, that’d be, yeah.”

“Cool, I’ll just get us set up.” Gerard grins at him and grabs the remotes from under the pile of crap on the coffee table and hands them over. “Hold these a sec...”

Gerard gets a blanket from the bed, and pulls a half eaten packet of Twizzlers from _somewhere_ before he comes back to the couch. “Mom has the heat set to go off at midnight so.” Gerard holds up the blanket. “Blanket fort?”

Gabe can think of nothing he wants to do more than snuggle under a blanket with Gerard so he grins, nods and makes grabby hands. Gerard switches off the lights and Gabe doesn’t think he’s imagining it when Gerard sits back down closer than they’d been before.

~~

It’s a particular kind of torture, sitting sweatily pressed up next to Gerard under the blanket in the dark, he can feel Gerard’s chest rising and falling every time he breathes.

“You really do have a beautiful face.” Gerard says suddenly in the middle of C-3PO’s oil bath. “I thought it was, but I didn’t _know_ til I drew you. You should be a model.”

“Umm.” Gabe’s face goes very warm. “Thank you? I like your nose.” _I like your nose_?! Gabe inwardly face-palms.

Gerard giggles and it’s just. Gabe wants to hear that giggle all the time forever. “My nose likes your face, too.” Gerard leans forward and rubs his nose on Gabe’s cheek like a messed up Eskimo kiss.

Gabe’s pretty sure he can feel his heart trying to pound up out of his throat, but something, probably the vodka, makes him turn his head and line up their noses. “My nose likes your nose.” he brushes his nose gently over the turned up tip of Gerard’s.

Gerard giggles again and Gabe can feel Gerard’s breath puff over his lips, it tickles and Gabe flicks out his tongue to lick the tickle away, except Gerard’s mouth is _right there_ and Gabe’s tongue flickers over Gerard’s lips, too. Gerard groans and brings his hands up to Gabe’s face, cradles it, his thumbs running over Gabe’s cheekbones.

“Yeah?” Gerard questions, breathlessly.

“Yeah.” Gabe moves forwards and touches his lips to Gerard’s, he’s got no fucking clue what he’s doing, not really, but it feels fucking electric, just that tiny contact. Gerard parts his lips and runs his tongue along the seam of Gabe’s mouth and now it’s Gabe’s turn to groan. They’re barely touching, feather light brushes of lips and tongue and it is _amazing_.

Gabe has no idea how long they kiss for, he feels like his brain is wrapped up in honey, sweet and thick, but when, eventually, Gerard pulls back, Gabe’s lips feel strange and swollen.

In the dim light from the snow on the T.V. - the movie’s long over - Gabe can see Gerard smile. “Thank you.” Gerard whispers.

“No, I...thank _you_ ” Gabe doesn’t want to speak too loudly and break the spell.

“We should sleep, I need to D.M. tomorrow, and Frankie’ll take advantage if he thinks I’m not paying attention.”

Gabe feels suddenly very fierce. “But that’s _cheating_!”

Gerard snorts. “Kinda, but Frank’s really good otherwise, I can always rely on him to go head first into any plot, and that comes in useful.”

“I could...” Gabe kind of stutters.

“Yeah, when you get used to the system.” Gerard smiles at him and kisses the tip of his nose. “You okay sleeping on the couch? I think I’ve got a spare pillow?”

They putter around in the dark, changing into pajama pants and old T-shirts and when Gabe is ready and lies down on the couch, Gerard tucks him in and kisses his forehead. “Sweet dreams, Gabe.”

“I’m totally going to dream up new things to stick on Ripley.”

“Awesome, I’ll draw them for you over breakfast.”

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[Podfic] Everything's Better with Vodka and Cogs](https://archiveofourown.org/works/661919) by [dapatty](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dapatty/pseuds/dapatty)




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